64 FLIGHT International, 8 January 1977
mini
DEFENCE Sikorsky wins Uttas competition
AT LEAST five European countries
have shown interest in the US Army's
new troop-carrying helicopter, the
UH-60A Utility Tactical Transport
Aircraft System (Uttas) being
developed by Sikorsky. Germany,
Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, the
Netherlands, Australia and Canada
made enquiries even before Sikorsky
had been awarded the initial produc
tion contract for 15 helicopters, Uttas
project manager Col Richard D. Ken-
yon told a Pentagon news briefing
late last month.
Sikorsky has received two contracts
totalling $144-6 million—$83 • 4 million
for the production phase and $66-2
million for continued development.
The total programme calls for 1,107
helicopters at a projected cost (includ
ing anticipated inflation) of $3,367
million.
Before any foreign orders trickle
in, however, Sikorsky and dis
appointed .Uttas contender Boeing
Vertol will square up again in the US
Navy competition for a new anti
submarine warfare helicopter, the
Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System
(Lamps) Mk 3. That competition, to
be decided by April, involves both
Uttas entries and the Westland Lynx.
The winner will produce 204 helicop
ters.
Pentagon decision
The two American entries are
clearly the front runners, and the
final selection may depend on whether
the Pentagon considers it more im
portant to protect the domestic heli
copter industry than to reduce its
military hardware expenditure. Un
like Sikorsky, Vertol has no commer
cial helicopter business. The Uttas
defeat could therefore drive Boeing
out of the rotary-wing industry if the
Navy does not bail it out with Lamps.
On the other hand, the economies of
scale derived from selecting a single
airframe for both Uttas and Lamps
would drive down the unit costs of
each.
At one time it seemed possible that
the US Marine Corps also might con
sider Uttas for its troop-carrier re
quirement. But USMC officers now say
that the type's limited size (crew of
three plus 11 combat-equipped troops)
and speed (175 knots) make it in
adequate for amphibious operations.
Under the fixed-price-plus-incentive
Uttas contract to Sikorsky, cost per
formance will determine profit. Of
particular concern, according to assis
tant secretary of the Army for re-
seach and development Edward Mil
ler, are empty weight, hover ceiling
and cruise speed. The first production
machine is to be delivered in August
1977, with first deliveries to units in
the field coming in the summer of
1978. The contract also contains fixed-
price options on 353 additional heli
copters: 56 in Fiscal 1978, 129 in
Fiscal 1979 and 168 in Fiscal 1980.
Uttas will replace most of the
Army's current inventory of over
4,000 Bell UH-1 Hueys on the basis
of 15 UH-60As for every 23 Hueys,
according to Miller. Sikorsky won the
contract, he added, because its entry
offered the lower overall life-cycle
cost (including investment and opera
tions and maintenance over the 20-
year expected service life), the lower
technical risk, and greater maturity
of design.
Boeing's Uttas contender repre
sented a higher technical risk, accord
ing to Miller, because of its greater
empty weight, lower rate of climb,
vibration problems, lack of maturity,
and the need for many more changes
to transform the prototype into a pro
duction helicopter. The vibration prob
lem may have been the deciding fac
tor. Late in the competition the com
pany raised the rotor mast to reduce
vibration, but the cure turned out to
be too little, too late.
Glass-fibre blade
The one big advantage of the Boeing
entry was its glass-fibre rotor blade,
now being considered by the Army
for other helicopters because of its
high resistance to enemy fire. Miller
said that the Army was satisfied "for
now" with Sikorsky's pressurized
titanium spar and glass-fibre skin with
aft-swept tips, but that it might con
sider upgrading the blade in the
future.
Engine contractor General Electric
has meanwhile been assured of a
role in the Uttas programme. Its
T700 engine was on both Uttas proto
types, as well as both the winning
Hughes entry and the losing Bell sub
mission for the Army's Advanced
Attack Helicopter (AAH) competi
tion. The firm has delivered 86 YT700
development engines to the four firms
for flight trials, and has received
three contracts totalling $49-4 million
for work on the Uttas programme.
An initial $38-4 million production
contract covers 53 engines, spares,
and engineering logistics support. GE
has also received a $5-8 million con
tract for a cost-reduction programme,
and $5-2 million for tooling design.
The T700 has already reached
30,000hr of testing—nearly quadruple
the 8,000hr required by the Army for
qualification—and GE expects to
achieve another 10,000hr by the time
the first production units are delivered
in around April 1978. The four AAH
and Uttas competitors accounted for
6,000hr of testing in flight prototypes,
plus 12,000hr in ground-test vehicles.
GE conducted an additional 12,000hr
of factory testing.
The next 10,000hr will involve cycli
cal testing in a thermal environment
more severe than anything the heli
copters will encounter in operation.
The aim is to achieve "on condition"
overhaul as opposed to! specified
maintenance intervals, a goal already
achieved with the ground-test engines.
Flight engines have achieved 800hr
lives, while combustion chambers have
been operated for l,000hr.
Despite speculation that the Uttas
defeat would force Boeing to close
its Vertol plant in the Philadelphia
area and to transfer helicopter work
to its Wichita, Kansas, plant, Miller
pointed out that the firm had five or
six years of work modifying the
Army's CH-47 Chinooks. This business
is expected to yield $85 million for
development and $900 million for
modification work. Boeing will also be
free to redesign its losing Uttas pro
totype to optimise it for the Navy's
ASW mission, while Sikorsky will
probably keep changes to a minimum
so as to be able to stress commonality
in the Lamps competition.
Emerson to build Tow-armed vehicle
ON December 17 last year Emerson
Electric was declared winner of the
US Army's Improved Tow Vehicle
(ITV) competition, receiving a $5-8
million contract from the Army Tank
and Automotive R&D Command to
cover engineering and production
planning. The unsuccessful conten
ders were Chrysler and Northrop.
Tow is currently on Ml 13 armoured
personnel carriers, which do not pro
tect the operator with armour while
he is launching and guiding the mis
sile.
The new vehicle will be a modified
M113 with an elevating launch plat
form containing two missile tubes, a
wide-field search sight, narrow-field
day and night sights, and the optical
tracker. The latter detects a light
source in the missile tail and
measures the missile-to-sightline
angle. Existing Ml 13s can be modified
to accept the new launcher by re
moving the commander's cupola and
increasing the cutout diameter by
five inches. The vehicle can shelter
behind a prepared fortification or take
advantage of existing cover, while the
relatively small launch platform is
raised to search for and engage
enemy armour. Throughout an en
gagement the operator remains within
the armoured hull of the M113. Re
loading the launcher requires the
crew to expose head and shoulders
but takes only 45sec. Improved Tow
Vehicles are expected to arrive in
Europe late next year or early in
1979 to equip US forces in Germany